I watched most of this game (between it and the Penn State game) and had much of the same sentiment. I respect Miles, but he definitely didn't do a very good job coaching his team this season. I don't think they handled their quarterback situation very well at all.

How was he supposed to handle it? He's basically got what we have -- a redshirt freshman who was never supposed to start this year and only started because the projected starter left the program (in their case, kicked out of the program). And the backup is basically Nick Sheridan-esque -- Hatch was a transfer from Harvard's JV team.

Not true. They played the equivalent of Threet/Sheridan in Lee/Hatch and left Jefferson (their quarterback for the future) on the bench until today, at which point they essentially said "what the fuck do we have to lose?" and put him in (he had played a few plays before today for a total of 7 passes) at which point he went 10-20, 129 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, and rushed for 23 yards. He actually played pretty well (I'm guessing you didn't watch the LSU game?). It was plainly obvious as far back as the Auburn game that neither Hatch nor Lee were going to cut it. Why they didn't make the move to Jefferson at that point is why I said what I did about his handling of the quarterback situation.

Miles purposely lost to Ole Miss so Campbell would cross off LSU on his list and head to Michigan. Miles is clearly working for Michigan...

But in all seriousness, I agree with all that was mentioned above. Miles isn't the one throwing the passes out there and they thought Ryan P (not even going to try to spell his last name) was supposed to be the next Vince Young, but instead, they got a repeat offender who was given way too many chances (think collegiate Pacman Jones) and kept getting in trouble. He's in the exact same boat as us, except he has some more talented players around him, while we lost way too many people and don't have as much talent behind those who left.

Can we at least all take solace that Charlie Weis lost to Syracuse? Mandel has an article stating that Weis is done at ND.

That just isn't true. Read my post below. Miles was not in the exact same position as Michigan at quarterback. He put Hatch/Lee out there for almost the entire season and left Jordan Jefferson (Rivals top 250 team, Scout.com top 20 QB, Rivals top 10 pro-style QB) on the bench until the second half of today's game. I wasn't aware that Rodriguez was keeping such a player on the bench at Michigan...

Sorry, jmblue, number one is not gonna fly with me. Kirk Ferentz was rumored to be another coach that was spreading rumors about Lloyd's health, yet, Lloyd "forgave" him. The rift between Lloyd and Les goes back to the days when they were both assistants under Gary Moeller. The real question is, should some alleged "indiscretions" of a personal nature that happened 15-20 years ago affect what goes on at UM in the present? I don't think they should have, but, they did.

You can not listen to me or not believe me, but Les Miles very much wanted to come to Michigan last season, regardless of the championship run LSU had going on at the time.

The problem was that Miles was never contacted by anyone official at UM--he couldn't be. But several alums and boosters had contacted him enough, and with enough resolve, that he had even gone so far as to begin to buy a house in Ann Arbor (fact).

When Herbstreit hit the airwaves (with intel from these same alums & boosters), and the proverbial shit hit the fan on SEC Championship day... with having never been actually contacted by Michigan, Miles could only do so much. Risk one high paying job for one nobody official has ever contacted you about? LSU acted swiftly and in the best interests of its program when it cornered Miles, and signed him to a lucrative long-term deal. We know it from there.

Why was Miles never contacted by Michigan? Carr made it pretty clear from the get go that he was not in any way in support of that move, and from what I have heard from multiple people within the UM Athletic Department, Bo Schembechler had also voiced strong concerns about Miles as a coach at Michigan, before his passing.

Add all of that to an already inept AD, and overly-involved, self-infatuated President like MSC ... and voilà -- you have RR at Michigan and Les Miles at LSU. Martin ran and hid (on his boat) so that he wouldn't be perceived as the bad guy for not going after Miles. They thought bringing in a coach who has thrived in a talentless conference for years, running a gimmick offense, would ever have a real chance at success in the Big Ten.

It's embarrassing... and humbling. But we are as low as low can get (I hope). Time to start climbing back up that hill...

Pretty much dead on with everything I've heard. And it's a shame, though, because Les Miles would have been infinitely better for this program, even if he were to burn out after a few years. As much as the "support RR!" "give him a few years!" crowd may or may not be right, I think Michigan would have been infinitely better off with 2 to 3 years of a failed Les Miles experiment than the 2 to 3 years of failed Rich Rodriguez we're going to get.

Talk about leaving the cupboard bare... It's going to make Lloyd Carr look like a veritable feast when RR and his traveling country bumpkin show hits the road for the next stop in a couple years. Mark my words, no matter what he says (which he only says because he has to), the Rich Rodriguez Experience and its accompanying hangers-on (which he refers to as "We" when talking about his program) will find greener pastures elsewhere within this group of freshman's four years. Talking behind the scenes to people, this is a culture shock for both parties involved, and I don't think either one really embraces the other. Michigan Football Starring Rich Rodriguez and His Spread Offense will only go so far, especially in a brutally cold-weather climate and a physical conference like the Big 10.

Where is Rich Rod going to go? Another college job isn't likely. Should a big program job open up they won't have interest in him unless he's successful here. This is a good thing as we may have to fight to keep him, but it means we've been a winning program. The NFL! Not likely the track record for college coaches jumping to the NFL isn't good. These are coaches that run pro-style offense and still haven't succeeded. The option is viewed as unfeasible in the NFL. A team would have to really go out on an experimental limb to hire him, with Al Davis who knows. For an NFL team to take a chance the same principal applies. We will need to be successful for them to have any interest.

You're right he could fail, I hate to even think it. If he does fail, speaking hypothetically cause he won't, he would have to take over a small time program. Coaching in a small conference or a lousy team in a big conference would not be a greener pasture.

Brian is absolutely right we need to give coach Rod four or five years. To drive him out early would damage the program horrifically on many levels.

It should also be noted that John Bacon, co author of "Bo's Lasting Lessons" has stated, on air on WTKA that Bo thought that Les Miles would be the next coach at UM and that if it did happen, it would be with his endorsement. Take it for what it is.

Jill, you are saying that one of the greater reasons Miles wasn't/cannot be offered the job as head coach at Michigan is because he had sex with someone's wife? As in, someone deep within the program... or just at Michigan... or within the NCAA circuit??

Clearly I'm not about to start name dropping and get my friends into trouble, so, I am not asking you to do that--but, my God. Is this is a widely corroborated story? Or just a myth? Or just drama... ?

But it's totally true that Les had sex with Lloyd's wife, daughter and mother. At the same time. Moeller was there, too, drinking Keystone Light and cheering Les on. Some even say Cam Cameron was in on it, too.

People who speak definitively about the behind-the-scenes happenings of events that were not made public (the courting of Les, the hire of RR), are nearly always repeated bullshit from someone else on the internet, who made it up.